More hospital time

Jamie spent most of the day at the hospital, but not for Jack. Her dad's gall bladder continued to be painful and he was re-admitted as a patient yesterday. Today he met with a surgeon and will have the gall bladder removed on Tuesday. He will stay in the hospital until then.

Jack's fever hit 102.5 last night, but has hovered just under 101 today. The pediatrician's assistant called me today and said the doctor suggested we go see the Infectious Disease group again, and I said "no thanks". If we take Jack back in for more care, it will be to a different group. The ID doctor already admitted she's done everything in her repertoire, and it hasn't resulted in anything useful.

I'm just baffled on the gall bladder issue with my father-in-law. Here's a history of the past three and a half years:

• November 2002 -- Jamie has severe appendicitis at her 36th week of pregnancy. Both she and Samantha make it through the surgery, and the appendix was described by the surgeon as "detached, gangrenous and necrotic".
• March 2003 -- Jamie has gallstones diagnosed and the gall bladder is removed.
• January 2005 -- Jamie's father has severe appendicitis and the appendix is removed. He suffers fairly serious complications (infection spread throughout the abdomen) that cause him pain for months afterward.
• May 2005 -- Jamie's mother has gall bladder trouble and the organ is removed.
• August/September 2006 -- Jamie's father experiences severe abdominal pain and is diagnosed with an infected gall bladder. Surgery coming up on Tuesday.

Three appendixes and two gall bladders in three years for Jamie and her parents? I'm an analsyst by trade, and data like this goes beyond statistical coincidence -- there just has to be something going on here. Is it environmental? We live close to many power lines now, and lived right next to a mini electrical facility from 2000 to 2002.

I'm also concerned about the after-effects of these procedures. Humans aren't supposed to miss the appendix very much after it's removed, but the gall bladder is a useful organ in the processing and digestion of food, specifically dietary fats. Eating a good amount of healthy fats (saturates from animal fat, monosaturates from things like olive oil, and polyunsaturates from flax or salmon oils) is an important part of our family nutrition, and those dietary fats serve an important purpose in bodily function. I plan on studying this some more to see what can be done to help Jamie and her parents get the nutrients they need without taxing a system that is one or two organs short in the digestive tract.

Gotta run, and I feel bad for Jamie's dad. Can you imagine being in intense pain on Friday, getting diagnosed on Saturday morning, and having to wait until Tuesday for the surgery? At least he'll get caught up on his reading list.